A locally based developer that builds upscale apartment towers in urban locations around Houston and across the country is planning its newest project in the Upper Kirby area, potentially adding more than 300 units to a site along Kirby Drive. Details are still being completed, but the project is expected to rise more than 30 stories and have restaurants on the ground floor, David Ott, development partner of the Houston-based Hanover Co., said late Monday.

The company is seeking approval from the city to develop the project with reduced building lines along Kirby and Kipling streets in order to allow the building to sit back farther than required along Steel Street, which is lined by a canopy of decades-old live oak trees. The company's intention, Ott said, is to do "everything possible to save the trees." "We're going to set back further than is required on Steel to give the existing tree canopy as much room as possible to survive," he said. The high-rise is being planned for land that houses two retail buildings and an older apartment complex. A portion of the apartment complex is not part of Hanover's project. The tower will sit just off Kirby on the western side of the property, with a retail building fronting Kirby and creating a pedestrian plaza between the two structures. Ground-floor retail will be in both buildings. Hanover, which is under contract on the 1.65-acre property, is scheduled to close early next year and begin construction in the summer of 2015, Ott said.